Helping those living with dementia

I wanted to be a PCSO as I’m from a policing background – my mum and dad were both police officers. As well as meeting people from the community and helping to deal with local issues, one of my favourite parts of my job is doing dementia visits. I’ve been doing them for about two years now and I’ve probably been to see about 60 people in that time.

A dementia visit is basically going to see someone who is living with dementia and taking as much information as we can, and keeping a record of their information on our police systems. This means if they go missing, we already have a lot of crucial information on file and can start the search faster.

“It matters to me because this is my community too”

I joined Bedfordshire Police in 2007, and I’ve been a PCSO for nine years.

I saw a poster about the role, and I applied because I wanted to give something back to the community. My objective has always been to help out in my community, and I knew a couple of people who used to work for the force who said they thought I would make a good PCSO, which encouraged me to apply.

After I applied I was invited to interview and then had to pass a fitness test. Then we had around 12 weeks of classroom based training before going out on duty with police officers. PCSOs were relatively new at that stage, but I got a lot of support from my Sergeant and other officers who helped me find my feet. In turn, I helped them learn more about the role of a PCSO. One thing I’ve learned since being here is that there is always someone here for guidance if you need it.

“Nine years in and I still love every day”

Our PCSOs provide vital support to our officers and make a real difference in Bedfordshire’s communities. PCSO Elliot Weedon writes about the things he has been dealing with in his nine years as a PCSO.